Caryophyllales

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A botanical order of flowering plants that includes carnations, cacti, beets and amaranths, grouped by shared traits such as certain pigments and seed structures
2. A taxonomic grouping of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing families such as Caryophyllaceae, Cactaceae and Amaranthaceae
3. The name of a plant order within the eudicots, notable for including carnations, cacti and many desert-adapted species

Etymology: The name begins with a spice. In ancient Greek, "karyophyllon" was the clove, formed from "karyon" (nut) and "phyllon" (leaf), probably because the dried clove bud looks like a little nut with leaf-like sepals. The plant order takes its name from the family Caryophyllaceae, the pink family, whose members were once grouped under the genus "Caryophyllus," the clove pink. That plant smells of cloves, which is why it was named after the spice. The family's best-known member is the carnation, which the genus name still carries. English "clove" is a different word: it comes from Latin "clavus," meaning nail, because the spice's shape resembles a small nail. So the spice and the flower share a Greek root in their botanical names, while the English word for the spice comes from a separate source.